Menu

Fifteen inmates are sent from Guantanamo Bay to the UAE as Obama continues push to shut down camp

Fifteen prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention center were sent to the United Arab Emirates in the single largest release of detainees during the Obama administration, the Pentagon announced yesterday.

The transfer of 12 Yemeni nationals and three Afghans to the UAE comes as President Obama is seeking to reduce the number of detainees at the prison in Cuba.

The Pentagon says 61 detainees now remain at Guantanamo, which was opened in January 2002 to hold foreign fighters suspected of links to the Taliban or Al-Qaeda.

US President Barack Obama is launching “a full-fledged, full-throated effort” to push the Trans-Pacific Partnership mega trade deal through Congress in the final lame duck months of his presidency.
This is despite vocal opposition from the leading candidates to replace him, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and labour unions that helped Mr Obama win two terms in the White House.